Green Room

When Fascism Comes To America, It Will Look Like Tea Party Crashers

Liberals love to quote Sinclair Lewis’ line that “when fascism comes to America, it will be draped in the flag and carrying a cross.” Lewis was wrong. We have had the flag and Christianity for over 200 years, but we have not had fascism.

To the contrary, when fascism comes to America, it will look something like the reaction to the Tea Parties. I do not mean the lunatic rants of the netroots. That’s fine. Mockery, hyperbole, and distortion are not the exclusive province of any one political party or ideology. I also do not mean counter-protests. That is fine too.

Fascism is not the exercise of free speech, even offensive free speech. Rather, it is the attempt to silence others through subversion and physical disruption. Think brown shirts in pre-war Germany, and anarchists at almost any world economic meeting. And that is what the Tea Party Crasher phenomenon is all about.

As detailed by Michelle Malkin and others, various groups (mostly from the left, but also from the right) plan to disrupt the Tea Parties by subterfuge. Pretending to be participants to disrupt. Making inflammatory accusations not to express an opinion, but to get the Tea Parties off course or to create a video-opportunity. Co-opting the Tea Parties for another purpose. Phony ambush “interviews” by people pretending to be journalists merely to elicit a reaction. Conduct on the streets similar to the trolls on the internet, who create havoc for the purpose of creating havoc and disrupting the free speech of others.

When fascism comes to America, it will not be wrapped in the flag or carrying a cross. It will look like it always has looked: Ugly and intolerant.

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I agree with you, notice it is always the left wing groups that shout down anyone who they disagree with. Isn’t it ironic that they call conservatives fascist, all the while calling for them to be silenced?

The behaviors you describe are the totalitarian aspect of fascism. The Obama administration has been implementing its economic aspects: direct state control of “private” industries. (To be fair, they’re building on a foundation Bush laid for them – but they’ve been building on it with a great deal of vigor.) The interesting question is whether the totalitarian impulse can ever be divorced from the economic program of fascism. I don’t believe it can. Fascist systems always require brutal power to keep their “private industry” vassals under control. The private industries always start wondering what right the fascists have to dominate them, like a successful prize fighter who begins to ask why he needs a “manager” who does nothing but lounge around and spend his money. The answer to this question is, and always will be, a boot in the face.